This week has been exhausting to say the least.
Monday:painted ceiling beams and outside support beams with oil based paints for 3 hours, burned my skin with paint thinner,only removed half of the maroon paint.
Tuesday:worked in our front yard for 6 hours to rake up into a monster size pile. I sliced open my finger by a piece of glass.
Wednsday: my team and I worked on another part of the field, pulling up and raking weeds and putting them in a huge pile.Then my entire squad and I went to a part of Chichigalpa that we have never been before. It is on the outskirts of the city in the farm lands. We were going to do a door to door ministry.
We went to the first house and prayed for a family, the woman told us that many of her family members were very sick and in the hospital. After we prayed she shared to us the history of the town that we were in. Roughly 14 years ago the Volcano erupted, the ash that rained down on the town killed thousands of people. Many of her siblings and even her Mother were killed in the devastating catastrophe. She pointed to a large and empty field across from her house and explained that dead bodies were piled up high from thevolcano eruption.
After hearing the loss that the town has experienced I realized the town was filled with 30 tiny shacks and they were all still trying to heal from the devastating past. My group and I continued to the next shack and met this very sweet elderly woman. She was blind and shared to us that she was very nervous about what the next thing for her life was going to be. I held her hand and my group and I prayed for peace and comfort and for God to heal her. After we prayed she looked up and smiled. She said that she could feel God with us and while we were praying for her she felt Godly comfort. She then told us that she was ready to open her eyes and see her heavenly father.
She then introduced us to her granddaughter. As soon as her granddaughter came outside she had such a beautiful smile. She has a smile that lights up a whole room and her laugh warmed my heart. It's people like her that make me realize all of God's beautiful creation. Her name is Kelly, she is a spunky, loving and smiley 4 year old who was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago. As soon as I heard this my first response was to raise money to get treatment for her cancer. So she would have a better chance in surviving her diagnosis. We prayed over Kelly and gave goodbye hugs and continued to walk to the next tiny house.
In the next house we met a woman who was in a wheel chair. She had no function in her legs. When we were talking to her she was sewing.We prayed over her and I kept praying that she knows that she is worthy and even though she didn't have the full abilities that other people do that God has such a huge plan for her and he loves her. Her wheelchair was broken and once again I tried to think of solutions to that problem. I kissed and hugged her goodbye and we left her house.
One of my teammates in my group wanted to go back to pray over Kelly again and so did I. We turned around and walked towards kelly's house. Once we got there she ran into my arms and I picked her up and spun around. She was giggling so much and had the biggest smile on her face.
At that exact moment I realized what God has been trying to teach me all week long.
That lesson is relying fully on His power alone and being completely dependent on Him.
My first response to everything is that I can handle it and I'm strong enough to fix issues on my own and help others with my own strength. I am SO far from that! God is the strength that keeps me going everyday. God is the reason why I'm alive and why I have such a passion to help other people. God is stronger than I could ever be. God can heal the devastation that I see, he can heal the sickness and darkness that I've seen, he keeps me going when my body is sore and exhausted from the lack of sleep.
All week long my team and I experienced very draining manual labor jobs. During the door to door ministry I realized how all of my first reactions are to solve things myself before relying on God. My first reaction with the Kelly the 4 year old with leukemia, the blind grandmother, the woman in a wheelchair, painting for 3 hours with paint that is impossible to remove,working in the hot sun for 6 hours pulling weeds, going to the dumpster and seeing people live there, having to walk for a hour and a half because traffic completely stopped from the protest going on in the city. Did I mention that the walk was a total of 6 and 1/2 miles?, building a house and carrying 400 (20 pound)bricks.
Im learning to live each moment totally and completely dependent upon Christ. Jesus is all I need and He is more than sufficient. God is forever faithful and through every circumstance I trust that he will never fail me.
1 Peter 5:6
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalted you in due time.
The past week I have submitted all of my control and depended fully on Christ, it's not easy but I love being nothing so God can be my all in all!
